In mail processing as well as in processing for a package delivery service, it is usually necessary at some point to separate or singulate parcels, bundles and other packages one from the other. The process of separating one package from a stack or collection of same is referred to as singulation. Singulating mail pieces is an essential step in processing the mail pieces to their ultimate destination. The feeding or singulating of mail pieces and other packages one at a time from a collection of same is an essential step in the processing of such packages to their ultimate destinations. Such packages generally have a thickness or smallest linear dimension greater than 1/4. A singulator separates into single spaced-apart items, a collection of mail pieces.
In the prior art, mail would be provided on a single conveyor belt to an automatic, or an attended, mail sorter. With an attended sorter, mail appears on this conveyor on demand; the conveyor is triggered by the attendant to deliver mail pieces. The attendant inputs to the sorter address information for each mail piece just before that mail piece is provided to, or inducted into, the sorter. Alternatively, the mail piece could be provided with an automatically machine-readable label or device such as a bar code sticker, but the attendant would have to orient the mail piece so that such label or device would be exposed in a position where it could be detected and read by the sorter. In any of the above situations, often the mail is delivered to the sorter in bunches, making it difficult to handle and sometimes creating jams. Manual intervention is thus required to perform the singulation process as the mail supply is delivered for handling.
In mail processing or other delivery processing, it is usually necessary at some point to singulate or separate individual pieces of mail from a bulk supply source in order to initiate processing of those mail pieces. Letter mail and flat mail are normally provided in manageable stacks which are ready for singulation by upstream operations. Parcels, bundled mail and other packages, however, are delivered in bulk form, in large containers, sacks or trays. This package mail is presently dumped onto a conveyor and moved to machine operators who must pick individual pieces from this bulk supply in order to initiate processing of these pieces. Due to the non-uniform shape and size of parcel mail pieces, this effort is time-consuming and cumbersome to the operating attendant.
Thus, there is a need to create a manageable, continuous stream or flow of packages for mail or other delivery processing. The present invention fulfills this need.